Juliane Banse

Soprano Juliane Banse has a varied repertory of opera and concert music and is especially famed for her performances in Mahler's symphonies. She is also a noted educator. Banse was born in Tettnang, West Germany, on July 10, 1969. She moved with her family to Zurich, Switzerland, as a toddler. Musically talented, she took up the violin at age five and also took ballet lessons, making her stage debut as a dancer at the Zurich Opera House. One critic noted later that even as a singer, she retained the manner of a ballet dancer. Banse switched to voice at 15, taking lessons with Paul Steiner and then with Ruth Rohner at the Zurich Opera House. She moved on to the Musikhochschule in Munich, studing with Brigitte Fassbaender and Daphne Evangelatos. Banse took first prize at the Kulturforum competition in Munich in 1989, and she has continued to win major prizes throughout her career. The Munich prize led to a series of engagements in Mozart roles for Banse at the Komische Oper Berlin. Banse made her recording debut in 1993 on the Jecklin label on a volume in a series of the complete songs of Othmar Schoeck. The Mozart appearances in Berlin brought opera parts around Europe and a regular cast member slot at the Wiener Staatsoper beginning in 1994. That year, she made her debut with the Vienna Philharmonic in a concert presentation of Berg's Lulu Suite. Banse made her U.S. debut the following year, with the St. Louis Symphony in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 in C minor. She has gone on to give Mahler symphony performances under such conductors as Simon Rattle, Pierre Boulez, and Lorin Maazel, among others. Banse has appeared at many major opera houses and has a flourishing career as a lieder singer, having been accompanied by such major pianists as András Schiff, Maurizio Pollini, and Helmut Deutsch. The latter was accompanist on her contributions to a complete cycle of Brahms songs on the CPO label. As of 2022, Banse had appeared on more than 100 recordings, including, early that year, a reading of Hans Werner Henze's Nachtstücke und Arien on the Naxos label. Her recorded output is notable for its breadth, including music from Bach to the contemporary era. Banse has been on the faculty of the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf since early 2017. ~ James Manheim, Rovi